Israel OKs Extending Ceasefire for 24 Hours

Palestinians gather around the rubble of a building where at least 20 members of the Al Najar extended family were killed by an Israeli strike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, July 26, 2014. (Eyad Baba)

(Newser)
–
Despite new reports of rocket fire from Hamas, Israel's Cabinet has decided to extend a truce for 24 hours, until midnight local time tomorrow. However, it warned that its military would respond to any fire from Gaza and would continue to demolish Hamas military tunnels during this period. A temporary lull today saw Palestinians return to neighborhoods reduced to rubble and allowed medics to collect close to 150 bodies, said a Palestinian health official. John Kerry and European foreign ministers, meeting in Paris, had hoped to transform the ceasefire into a more sustainable truce. That effort was thrown into doubt with the Hamas' earlier rejection of a four-hour extension. (Read more Hamas stories.)

Blasting calls for Israeli “Maximum Restraint” Bob Dylan’s Son-in-Law Peter Himmelman releases song supporting Israel’s right to defend itself. http://legalinsurrection.com/2014/07/blasting-calls-for-israeli-maximum-restraint/ Because what they're facing is THIS: David Horowitz at UCSD 5/10/2010. Hosted by Young Americans for Freedom and DHFC A Muslim Jew-hater and supporter of genocide is flushed out by David Horowitz at a speech during "Israel Apartheid Week at the University of California San Diego... http://youtu.be/8fSvyv0urTE?t=2m47s

tpvero

Jul 27, 2014 5:13 AM CDT

Noam Chomsky from MIT says it best" Noam Chomsky’s statement on Israel’s aggression in Gaza: “The incursion and bombardment of Gaza is not about destroying Hamas. It is not about stopping rocket fire into Israel, it is not about achieving peace. The Israeli decision to rain death and destruction on Gaza, to use lethal weapons of the modern battlefield on a largely defenseless civilian population, is the final phase in a decades-long campaign to ethnically-cleanse Palestinians. Israel uses sophisticated attack jets and naval vessels to bomb densely-crowded refugee camps, schools, apartment blocks, mosques, and slums to attack a population that has no air force, no air defense, no navy, no heavy weapons, no artillery units, no mechanized armor, no command in control, no army… and calls it a war. It is not a war, it is murder. When Israelis in the occupied territories now claim that they have to defend themselves, they are defending themselves in the sense that any military occupier has to defend itself against the population they are crushing. You can’t defend yourself when your are militarily occupying someone else’s land. That’s not defense. Call it what you like, it’s not defense."